OHMA Current Students
CURRENT STUDENTS
Marianne Montero is an educator who has worked in school settings, and churches. She discovered that she really loves spending time interviewing people. Interviews have been part of the work she has done over the years, most recently for Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. She has a Master of Divinity for New York Theological Seminary and from Bank Street College of Education where her Master's Thesis was based on interviews. She has a BS from Clark University. It has been fifteen years since she has been in graduate school. After, she hopes to find a way to do research utilizing oral history methods and means of analysis.
Allison Tracy comes to OHMA from the University of Nevada where she studied sociology and English literature. Before joining us at Columbia, Allison has been working for the University of Nevada Oral History Program conducting interviews for their Women’s Athletics Project. Allison is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University in pursuit of producing radio and film documentaries.
Phil Sandick comes to OHMA from Columbia College (Class of 2005) where he studied Philosophy, Sociology, and Psychology. Before returning to Columbia, Phil has spent the last two and a half years living in Botswana. He accidentally became a Jewish circuit speaker back in 2007, giving various talks on the oral history of Jews in Zambia's Copperbelt. For the last year, he's been writing the (mostly oral) history of Maru-a-Pula (a private, non-racial secondary school in Gaborone, Botswana) where he also taught Southern African history. Phil is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University in pursuit of a career that facilitates making previously silent--or silenced--voices heard, particularly in the human rights realm.
Marie Scatena comes to OHMA from The University of Illinois at Chicago where she studied Modern European History and American Literature. Before joining us at Columbia, Marie worked in museum education at the Chicago History Museum. There, as a former classroom teacher and youth advocate, she developed and implemented programs with teenagers and oral history. These programs made significant contributions to recent exhibitions, interpretative youth performances, and created new historical sources archived at the Chicago History Museum. Marie is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University in pursuit of designing oral history projects wedding art and intergenerational learning into transformative experiences for public audiences. She is also interested in creating new forums to hear and share stories for the common good.
Molly Rosner comes to OHMA from Wesleyan University where she majored in American Studies. As an undergraduate Molly worked with documentary film makers Judith Helfand and Dan Gold on a film entitled "Everything's Cool," about the politics surrounding Global Warming. She has worked at the American Social History Project and for her own study she interviewed residents of the Upper West Side. Molly is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University and hopes to use the skills she acquires in this program to someday make documentaries of her own.
Danielle Lupkin, who is currently the Correspondence Coordinator in the Office of the President at Columbia, comes to OHMA with an undergraduate degree in Linguistic Anthropology from Brandeis University. Before joining the President's staff, Danielle participated in Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, helping to archive and preserve testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust. Danielle is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University in pursuit of what she hopes to be a union of many of her life's interests and talents including the human narrative, photography and documentary expression, and a commitment to the non-profit sector.
Cory Ann Lee comes to OHMA from the University of New Mexico where she studied history and English. Before joining us at Columbia, Cory assisted oral historians and political archivists at UNM’s Center for Southwest Research Political Archives. In 2007, she received a grant from UNM’s Center for Regional Studies to participate in an oral history field study project documenting migration patterns from New Mexico to Wyoming after World War II. Cory is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University in pursuit of an academic position that will allow her to conduct oral history research projects and mentor future oral historians in the southwestern United States.
Lauren Taylor entered the Columbia University School of Social Work in 1990. She says, "I had no idea that I would choose aging as my field of practice. My original intention was to become a family therapist. My first-year field placement was in a nursing home, where I found myself fascinated by the stories my clients told. I realized that personal narrative would be essential to my work. I am a licensed clinical social worker, specializing in psychiatric social work with older adults. Currently the project coordinator of the Hartford Partnership Program on Aging Education, I am also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. I was for many years on staff at the Service Program for Older People (SPOP), and I conduct seminars and workshops on a wide variety of mental health issues related to the aging process. In 2002, in conjunction with CUSSW, I made an educational film about sexuality and aging, funded by the Hartford Foundation and distributed by the New York Academy of Medicine, and in 2005 I created a second teaching film, in which I brought together young social work students and older women for a dialogue about the challenges facing women across the life span. Sparked by an invitation to speak about healthy aging to an NGO at the United Nations, I have begun to look at issues that face aging populations in other parts of the world. The Oral History Masters is a course of study offering me an optimal opportunity to pursue my interests in aging, narrative, and research."
Bessie Dvora China Leipakumakaniokalani Ching (China) is Native Hawaiian, Chinese, and Japanese from her father's side and Jewish from her mother's side. She was named according to Hawaiian and Jewish traditions, and carries names from the matrilineal lines of both her parents. She has taught video production and digital storytelling across the United States and in Canada and Africa, with a particular emphasis on using media technologies and storytelling for social and community change. China was a founding member of Third World Majority, a new media training and production resource center where she was the Director of Circle of Voices, a Native-specific training program. China worked for four years at the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center (NNAAPC), where she developed a national HIV-stigma media campaign entitled, “Together We Are Stronger.” She was also the author of, “Youth Powered Media: A Native Youth HIV Prevention Media Project” an 18-session curriculum designed to provide HIV prevention education, media literacy, media production skills, and leadership development to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian teens. China is honored to have come from a family of artists and to have had the opportunity to serve Indigenous communities around the world. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Hispanic Studies from Connecticut College.
Lance Thurner comes to OHMA from Indiana University where he did his BA in History. Before joining us at Columbia, Lance spent two years participating in the rebuilding process in New Orleans. His experience there, working with homeowners and volunteers, and listening to their stories of suffering, hope and struggle, brings him now to the field of Oral History. Lance is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University, after this degree he plans on pursuing a PhD in History.
S. Ryan White comes to OHMA from St. Lawrence University where he was a multi-field major focusing on Globalization and its effects in Latin America. Before joining us at Columbia, Ryan has been a community radio volunteer and an independent radio producer. Ryan is excited about joining the first cohort of Oral Historians graduating from Columbia University in pursuit of making audio documentaries.
